After the Fall, After it All
by YellowTrumpets
Summary: Oneshots, focusing on each character and his or her place after the events in KH. And I do mean each character. Next up: Tidus!
1. A Hop, Skip, and a Jump

Disclaimer: No, no, still don't own 'em. Disney and Squaresoft have that particular honor. This will be a series of one-shots focusing on characters. I'm hoping to get one for every single character in the game. Ambition or Madness? You decide.

…

A Hop, Skip, and a Jump

…

They aren't coming back.

I know it, Tidus knows it, Wakka knows it, and I think that even Kairi knows it. She just won't say it out loud. I mean, what are the chances? Nobody knows where Sora is, let alone Riku, and, horrible as this might sound, I don't care as much anymore.

Wait, let me explain. I never really liked Riku at all. He was way too good to be hanging out with any of us, except for Sora and Kairi. And he kind of scared me, I mean, you never knew what he was going to do next. And the look in his eyes…kind of wild, like there was a pit of darkness in the middle and he was barely out of it. If you ask me, we're better off without him.

But you won't. Nobody does, after all. I'm just little Selphie, bouncing up and down on the beach, completely oblivious to everything. And maybe I was oblivious, before everything happened. But things happened before I got back to my island. Bad things.

There's another question you won't bother to ask. _What happened to you, Selphie?_

I saw people dying. I saw things nobody should have to. While Princess Kairi was off almost being used to destroy the universe, I was working in an orphanage, taking care of children whose parents got all, you know, heart-sucked. No time for jump-roping.

Probably why I'm doing it now. Hop, skip, jump. Hop, skip, jump. If I keep at it, maybe I can pretend everything is normal.

Because that's what we need right now.

…

A/N: Nobody expected me to start with SELPHIE, did they? What do you think? I always thought she'd be a bit more mature after everything and not so much of a little girl anymore…who do you want to see next?


	2. Let's Play Pretend

Disclaimer: Disney. Squaresoft. Own my world. Yeah. This time, it's Tidus, due to a request I received. Hopefully it's up to par. Angsty, I know.

…

Let's Play Pretend

…

She's weirder now.

Not that Selphie's ever been…normal, but lately she's lost her mind. Just standing there, jumping rope like nothing's changed, like Sora and Riku aren't gone. Like everything that has happened in the last few months just…didn't.

But it did. It feels like a dream now, but I know it happened.

The scars on my arms are more than enough proof. Somehow, being a hero wasn't as easy as I thought it would be. China was rough before the Heartless, from what I had heard. Afterwards…well, it was awful.

And then, poof! It was over, and I was back here with Selphie and Wakka. Ling, Yao, and Chien Po- gone. No sign of the mountains, of the Huns, nothing at all.

Just me and this stupid, fake sword.

Kairi's told us a lot of stories about Sora and Riku and all the brave things they've done. Saving worlds,_ trying to destroy worlds_- that surprised me. I mean, everybody knew Riku's a loose cannon, but commanding hordes of darkness?

Kairi _swears_ it's not his fault. That he didn't have a choice. Bull…crap, if you ask me. If there's anything I learned the entire time I was gone, it's that you always have a choice.

But that's just Kairi's way. Riku and Sora walk on water, and the rest of us…

That's not nice. The old Tidus wouldn't have been so mean. The old Tidus wouldn't be afraid to find out what his friends were going through in the war, because he wouldn't worry about reliving his experiences. His first kill, the first time he saw a body…

The old Tidus would be jumping around on the beach, waving the toy in his hand like he could actually do some damage with it, and pretending to be the great hero, who saves the beautiful Princess Selphie from the clutches of the Dread Pirate Wakka.

The old Tidus was a little kid. He didn't know anything about war. He was happy. And now, he's dead, and I'm here, going through the motions in his place. _But who am I?_

His biggest dream was for Selphie to notice he existed, and maybe to beat Sora in a swordfight.

My biggest dream? I don't know if dreams exist for me anymore. Funny, I'm thirteen, and I feel so old sometimes. I do know that nightmares exist. And that they can come true.

I don't know if I can ever be him, ever be the old Tidus again. But I can pretend, and maybe that will chase the shadows away.

_So let's play pretend._

…

A/N: Wow. This was so...un-Tiduslike. But I wanted one of them to be drastically changed after KH, and he was the lucky one. Next up? Throw me a bone.


End file.
